Elevation to Chaos
by Psieks
Summary: It's the beginning of the school year for the Beta kids and trolls. In an alternate timeline without Sburb or Sgrub, they meet as a part of a foreign exchange program. All is normal until a history lesson reveals some inconsistencies in their universe... Schoolstuck AU. Alpha and Beta trolls and kids.
1. Chapter 1

A young lady stands in her bedroom. Due the time on the clock, she can see it is time to leave for school, as well as remind a certain young man that school lunches are nasty. This will prevent her from having her work interrupted by his abrupt bout of food poisoning that will invariably occur afterward. That young man's stomach is relying on her.

"rose we need to get in the car the year is STARTIGN and it cnat start without me!" her mom calls her from downstairs, presumably doing her best to sober up as quickly as possible before her job started. How this woman reached the status of an English teacher, she'll never know. It's an enigma that saturates the nine months both of them spend relentlessly working within the walls of the school. As a sophomore, this year brings a significantly lower load of hazing with a flush of opportunities to haze. "i siad HURRY!"

Calmly, Rose takes her bag from its resting place by her foot and tosses it over her shoulder. "I'm coming. Get in the passenger seat. We'll be late if you wind up crashing."

Roxy hiccups and stumbles through the kitchen, her head floating up and down in contrast with her erratic bodily motions. From the stairs, Rose rolls her eyes and pulls out her phone. She opens a new message log and selects her aforementioned friend as the recipient. While being careful about tripping or running into something, she quickly types and sends her warning reminder. Nobody likes a sick student on the first day of the new school year. With her task complete, she is able to pick up the pace and quickly reach the bottom of the stairs. Roxy leaves the house first and leaves Rose to shut and lock their front door before walking to their car and unlocking it. They open their respective doors and seat themselves. The car is started and off they go. There's no way they'll be late. The Lalondes are always punctual.

"htis yera were doing a forign exchang thing... students and teachers. make sure yuo play nice with the ohter kids, ok?" Rose takes her mother's comment with a grain of salt. The school has never hosted such a program, but if it is indeed true then there is much potential for this year. Which country did she wish to meet students from the most? "ob course don't date any of them. you know these programs don't normally keep them here forever. i don't crae how cute his butt is lmao just don't do it."

"I'll make absolutely sure I don't date any boys with cute butts this year, foreign or not." Hopefully this would be the year. "I'm not that into... butts."

"i'm sure you'll find somebooty to date with yuor desisered charcteiserists. just don't get engaged to your friens like janey an i did when we were ur age."

A sharp car honk draws her attention away from the conversation. There's certainly a greater variety of students this year. What a diverse freshman class...

"goddamitt someone bet us to r spot." Roxy gestures toward a vehicle they don't recognize. Of course new students are parking in the faculty lot.

"I'm sure we'll get them straightened out. Now let's get your things so I can meet your foreign students. This could make for an interesting year if I befriend any. If you're still hungover at lunch I'll take you for something greasy, Mrs. Lalonde." That should cover the basics. In spite of all her years of alcoholism, proper hangover care never was one of her strong points. "Now if you'll excuse me I need to meet a few people."


	2. Chapter 2

A young man stands in his school's courtyard. It just so happens that today, the 27th of August, is this young man's first day of junior year. Though it was three yeara ago he started high school, it is only today he is given the opportunity to eat lunch off campus!

His three best friends have already arrived, but are scattered across the campus. One is within his sight now. She is speaking to a new student with dark hair and pale gray skin. "hey rose! hey rose introduce me to your friend. is she part of the exchange my nan mentioned?"

Rose smiles at John's goofy, buck toothed grin and nods her head. "This is Kanaya. She says she is a troll from Alternia who came with her friends and dancestors."

"Thats Right" the troll nods and a strand of her falls between her eyes. "Rose Told Me About This Schools Programs While We Were Waiting For You"

"yeah! my nan is the culinary arts teacher. she's the head of the family consumer sciences department. this is the first year that she isn't making me take one of her damn classes."

"Your Parent Teaches Here?"

"rose's mom and my nan both do. are any of your dancestor guys going to teach classes?"

"My Dancestor Is In The Mathematics Department"

Behind their conversation, a loud woof from the parking lot announces another friend's presence. John and Rose avert their attention to the girl fussing at the excited dog.

"bec no! you cant come with me im sorry... you have to stay with pop until i come home this afternoon. i promise i wont forget about you." She bends to the ground and hugs the dog while it licks her obediently. "good boy." Jade turns around and waves to her friends while shutting the car door behind her dog as he hops in.

"She Has A Very Pleasant Lusus" Kanaya remarks while Jade dashes to meet them with her bag half open. A pencil flies out as she suddenly stops next to John. Her comment is missed while a pale hand jerks to snatch the pencil out of the air, but misses. The boy groans and walks to retrieve it. Rose notices the reaction and nods at their fourth friend.

"hehe dave youre still not much of a morning person, are you?" Behind his shades, she's positive she saw him roll his eyes. "im sure you are just coming this close to the bell for a reason?"

"there was a yearbook meeting. you forgot about it , didn't you."

Jade hastily checks the strings tied to her fingers and shakes her head. "it must have fallen off while i was sleeping last night! hopefully roses mom didnt notice."

"She probably didn't. She was still drunk when we left the house this morning and wound up late ourselves. An unknown perpetrator parked in our regular place."

"well i guess thats good... dave! youre going to have to fill me in during lunch." As though she had already known it would happen at the exact moment, the bell blares. "see you!" she gently brushes her lips against his cheek and dashes off. Turning the pencil in his hand, Dave nods to his friends and takes off for first period.

"What Do You Have First" Kanaya asks the remaining kids.

"i've got biology with mr. zahhak."

"So do I. How about you?"

Kanaya pushes her hair out of her face and smiles. "Were All Together So Lets Get Going"

Rose leads down to the basement and the final bell rings just as they meet the clump of students inside. "8=D Stop star*ng and take a seat. We have lots of th*ngs to cover."


	3. Chapter 3

The students hastily take their seats along the lab tables. Rose, John, and Kanaya find one in the rear center and are quickly joined by a short troll in a long coat with unruly hair. ":33 good morning, kanaya!" From beneath the coat, Rose catches the swish of a tail as she puts her bag on the ground next to them. She slumps into the unoccupied seat at the table and waves energetically. From the speaker in the ceiling, a reedy voice blares out the morning announcements.

"G99d m9rning, students! My name is Kankri Vantas and I am y9ur guidance c9unsel9r. These ann9uncements are tagged with trigger warnings that are n9t limited t9 6ack to sch99l stress, c9mpetitive sp9rts, hierarchies, hazing 9f freshmen, and seni9ritis. If I failed to appr9priately tag, there is a 6asket in the cafeteria where y9u may list triggers s9 that I may tag them in the future. Without further ad9, I must welc9me each and every 9ne 9f y9u to the 2013-2014 year at Sassacre High Sch99l! 9ur first f99t6all game is 9n Friday at 6 PM. Please attend and supp9rt 9ur team! 9ther activities this week include the marching 6and 6ack t9 sch99l c9ncert this afternoon at 5 PM and JR9TC's pre-seas9n fundraiser, which is g9ing 9n all week during 4th and 5th lunches. They have made shirts 9n sale f9r ten d9llars. Class electi9ns will 6e held in the c9urtyard. 6e sure to 6ring y9ur student ID and v9te f9r 9fficers t9 represent y9ur class. Student am6assad9rs are availa6le during 6oth lunches f9r any freshmen 9r new students with questi9ns ab9ut sch99l rules. If any 9f y9ur c9urses are inc9rrect, request a pass fr9m y9ur teacher during an elective and c9me t9 my 9ffice. Keep in mind the dress c9de that will 6e enf9rced all year. The tw9 finger rule applies to all shirts and n9 sh9rts may fall a69ve y9ur fingertips. Excepti9ns are made for athletic classes, but y9u must change 6ef9re y9ur next c9urse. As a final reminder 6ef9re I turn the fl99r t9 y9ur teachers, I'd like t9 menti9n that there are f9reign transfer students and teachers fr9m Alternia and 6ef9rus. Please give them a warm welc9me 9s y9u c9me acr9ss them thr9ugh9ut y9ur day." The system clicks off and Horuss wipes sweat from the back of his neck, muttering something under his breath while shifting papers on his desk. Damp strands of hair fall forward and his forehead creases before he snatches a pile of papers and tosses them in the waste bin.

"8=D Welcome to AP b*ology. You all can refer to me as Mr. Zahhak. Th*s course w*ll focus on the study of l*fe forms from the planets of both humans and trolls. *t *s e%pected of you to not make foals of yourselves *ns*de the classroom. Your stablemates will be your lab partners throughout the year, so hopefully you have made good dec*s*ons! Are there any quest*ons?"

The only other troll in the room, a girl with thick hair and ram-like horns props her hand up on the table while watching as the teacher ignored her action. She sighs and raised it higher, glaring at the back or Horuss's head. "8=D Yes, Aradia?"

"will we be studying prehist0ric 0rganisms" she asks emptily. Horuss flinches at the sound of her voice and shakes his head.

"That w*ll be taught in the worlds h*story AP *courses, Ms. Meg*do. Th*s course's true purpose *s to apprec*ate the beauty of l*fe on Altern*a and Beforus, namely the musclebeast. Oh, what a f*ne e%ample of l*fe! As an opener, you should all cut your canter and draw a deta*led drawing of a musclebeast or Earth horse. You w*ll turn in the draw*ngs at the bell. Use whatever med*a you carry w*th you. Th*s *s your f*rst test grade!"

Students at each table open their bags and pull out notebook paper, sketchbooks, pens, pencils, and materials foreign to Earth. Nepeta unscrews a jar of very viscous brown ink and dips a finger in while Kanaya's jaw drops slightly. "I Cant Believe You Brought A Jar Of _That _Here What Were You Thinking Dont You Know The Earth System Doesnt Take So Well To Blood" she whispers harshly. The feline troll grins with closed lips, but two of her pointed teeth poke over the edge of her bottom lip.

":33 mew are being pawsitively ridiculous if mew expect me to paint with anything else! nothing works better than soot, ash, and the blood of slain beasts," she explains impatiently to her friend. Kanaya shakes her head and withdraws a pencil from her bag. Both set to work with their respective materials and draw hoofbeasts. To Kanaya's right, Rose casually doodles a horse in the lower corner of her paper before she sets to work on the final masterpiece. On the far right of the table, John shakily draws his outline. Glancing at other drawings, he chuckles and the pencil line jets off in a direction. The horse's back angle is skewed and he hastily erases it. Across the room, humans and trolls work on the first test, each silently cursing the new teacher for his obsession.

At the end of the period, everyone neatly piles the pictures at Horuss's desk. He grins and waves out to everyone as they leave, shaking one boy's hand after seeing the photograph-like quality of the horse he drew. "8=D Are you tak*ng M*ss Meul*n's art class? *'d h*ghly recommend *t for such EXTREME talent as yourself." The boy silently nods and rushes out of the room to his next class.

"what's your next class?" John asks the three girls he sat with in class.

"Culinary Arts"

":33 i've got physical edpurrcation!"

"I'm off to the worlds history AP course Mr. Zahhak mentioned. Hopefully I'll pick up some interesting cultural notes on Alternia and Beforus."

"well i'm off with nepeta, then. i'll catch you two later!" Nepeta dashes off in the direction of the gym before realizing that she didn't know the campus's layout. She waits bashfully for John to catch up and the two rush off together. Kanaya and Rose nod to each other before walking their separate ways. _The next period should hopefully yield a less bizarre teacher,_ Rose thought to herself.

Jade catches her eye on the stairwell and cocks her head. With a finger swirling by her temple, Rose uses the other hand to gesture at the door that led to the AP biology classroom. "He's more than a little eccentric," she mouths. The warning bell rings and the surrounding students begin hustling toward their classrooms. The stairs beat against her feet to make it on time to room A208. She snags a handout at the front of the room and takes a seat just as the final bell sounds. There aren't any friendly faces, unfortunately. The teacher is another troll, a gray lady in a cobalt blue dress and hair just slightly longer than Rose's white-blonde bob. Her horns look vaguely similar to a scorpion's pincer and stinger. Overall, she appears to be a modest, teacher-like type. The student teacher? She's another story completely.


	4. Chapter 4

She's sitting in one of the desks with her feet propped over the top. Her bright fuchsia shoes are similar to the ones worn by students who consider themselves as having "swag." A girl walks in late and is promptly given a death glare from behind her sharp lenses. None of the seats are taken and she has a one desk border. "Meenah, can you pleeeeeeeease get your dirty shoes off the desk?"

"o)( s)(ell no gull we are not doin t)(is" she picks up a double trident and spins it lazily. "t)(ese guppies are w)(ere t)(ey s)(ould be and i am w)(ere i am )(appy so i'm s)(ore you cod get t)(roug)( your syllabass tang" Three girls in the back giggle and find the trident whizzing between their heads. Meenah turns to them slowly and draws a long fingernail across her throat. "you crappie little gills betta clam up before this beach krills ya" The girls hurriedly nod and try to dislodge the fork from the wall. Aranea shakes her head and takes a deep breath.

"I am Ms. Serket, your worlds history AP teacher. Miss Peixes is your student teacher. This class aims to 8roaden your understanding of Alternia, 8eforus, and Earth. We will start the year with a unit that compares and contrasts the troll planets against Earth, followed 8y a history explaining the relationship 8etween Alternia and 8eforus. If there's anything you don't want to miss, it's going to 8e the unit done alongside Mr. Zahhak's AP 8iology course. Its focus will 8e the similarities in evolution of animals from all three planets! The rest of the course will 8e done as the school sees fit, so there aren't any plans yet." An odd student yawned. It wasn't quite 10:30 yet, and not everyone was awake. "Now I'm sure you've all had experience with lecture-8ased classes. Miss Peixes and I expect you to take notes to study 8efore tests. If there are any sections you missed, we have fifth period lunch so you can come in then and we will 8e happy to help you fill in the notes. At the end of every unit, you will all 8e writing an essay 8ased on a prompt we give you. Are there any questions? No8ody needs to 8e nervous!"

A hand is raised by the student next to Rose and she looks curiously over. His entire body twitches and he's heavily slumped in spite of his ramrod straight arm. The glasses on his face are slightly askew, but it could be an illusion caused by the abnormal colors of the lenses. From the side, she's able to see his eyes. It could be another trick, but she swore she saw a spark in them. Aranea nods to him and he looks back down, taking his hand with him. His head shakes back and forth and Rose can't help it but to feel sorry for the impossibly shy troll.

From her seat, Meenah cackles at the quiet student and doubles over. A braid gets caught in the joint of the desk and promptly yanks her back into place, much to the amusement of the class. She scrambled to retrieve her trident from where the girls left it, but is quickly halted from throwing it by a judging stare from Aranea. Dissuaded, she falls back and sits, spinning the trident absently with one hand and pounding her leg impatiently with the other.

"Now that inductions are taken care of, it's 8est we move right on ahead. We will 8e 8eginning the year with a comparison on our three home planets. As this class is majority human, Alternia will 8e studied first so that everyone may gain an equal amount of familiarity! Alternia is a 8rutal planet to 8e 8orn on, from my understanding. Even though I've lived there and had a very opposite experience, not once facing the horri8le class-8ased unrest that the planet is so known for. You see, 8eforus and Alternia are in reality the same planet. My generation of trolls, which includes Ms. Peixes and the other teachers recall a peaceful planet. None of us were from the same caste, 8ut we all remem8er 8eing a8le to maintain a8out the same quality of life. The young generation of trolls, the students, hail from Alternia. I've searched all of my records for an explanation as to why the name would change from one generation to another, 8ut everything is covered in garish encryptions. There's no way to tell. Anyone capa8le of 8reaking through them passes for the semester... Yes that would be appropri8. I don't any of you can do it, though! It's a com8in8tion of 8eforusian and Alternian dialects. Is highly impro8a8le one of you could do it when I'm so helpless myself."

The formerly shy boy's hand shoots in the air. "Yes..." she scans her roster. "Sollux, Sollux Captor." Her hand hovers by her ear as if she were expecting to hear something awful, but no such thing happens.

"iif iits not two much trouble iid liike two see the fiile2 after cla22. ii bet iits not a2 hard a2 any of you thiink the2e are never two diiffiicult..." Sollux fiddles absently with something hidden from view and Aranea nods.

"Come in during your lunch and you can have a look. Getting 8ack in to history, 8eforus did have a hemospectrum just like Alternia. Many aspects of your personality and life were decided 8y the color of your 8lood. For the humans in the room, many castes were known for a8ilities specific to them. Upper castes have gills around their ears, Ms. Peixes is one such troll as a fushcia 8lood. I myself am in the aristocracy, 8ut am not as high up. While she is heir to the 8eforusian throne, I am only-" The bell sharply cuts off the rambling and students hustle out of the room while minding to give Meenah a wide berth.

In the hall, Rose turns an idea in her head. Of course she could be wrong. The only way to find out would be through the truth, which in this case is a combination of learning in class with a chatty teacher and perhaps spending lunch helping a certain troll break encryptions. Her mind floats to him... he'd seemed like an individual without confidence but flipped so quickly.  
It's unlikely, sure. There's no way trolls can come just one generation apart and know such different worlds; not unless something awful happened and caused despair for the first group. Did a despair ruin their offspring? Maybe a genocide? A rule to begin enforcing separation of classes on their hemospectrum?


	5. Chapter 5

Rose turns and starts after the individual who spoke, Sollux. He'd probably appreciate advance notice of her desire to join his efforts during lunch. Among the throngs of students, his claw-like horns stand out against the majority human crowd. They're her focal point as she shoulders her way to him. "Excuse me," she says to catch his attention. He doesn't acknowledge her. Lightly, her fingers brush his shoulder.

A shock nearly fries her hand. Sollux whips around and glares through his tinted frames. From Rose's perspective, a pair of dull, cyborg-like eyes flicker red and blue. "what do you want" His voice is much coarser than it was in the classroom. What a character this boy is...

"I'm Rose and if you don't mind, I'd like to join you in Ms. Serket's room during lunch. I'll admit that I'm not exactly a computer genius, but I'm sure there's something I can do to offer you assistance," she does her best to smile charmingly but it's no use.

Sollux's eyes dim and he shakes his head. "ii'm not one for collaboratiive effort2. youll get iin the way 2o ii sugge2t you 2tiick two uncoveriing your own human hii2tory." This shy boy had gone from shier than her dead cat was with strangers, to polite and enthusiastic, to complete egocentric asshole. What a personality! He's a unique kind of bipolar, perhaps an Alternian stress induced mechanism. Maybe Kanaya can elaborate.

The next class isn't too far off and Rose easily makes it before the bell rings. It's English with her mother, who has sobered enough to effectively teach. Unfortunately, the class is more engaging when Roxy is drunk.

Her real talent is outside of words and writing. It consists primarily of ones and zeroes. The tangents in the commentary to her PowerPoint make it clear that computers are her forte. Like the enigma she is, she picked a job that fit Rose's interests better than her own. She'd always said her own mother was a writer and the career voice was to keep her memory alive, but it's more likely than not she was just drunk when she picked her major. There's no evidence of anyone in the family being interested in writing event for Rose. As for having a grandmother, there'd never been evidence of that either.

An hour breezes by. With one more period to lunch, it's best she begin planning contributions to the conversation as well as the period's structure. Of course, the worlds history AP class and Sollux will be mentioned.

They'd all sit at the table that she and Jade had claimed their freshman year. As the tradition went, her older brother would bring food as opposed to wasting time off campus our rising explosive diarrhea. Dave would most likely try to garner as much of her attention as possible, but at some point she's need to talk to her. Jade's talent with computers and sciences in general may earn her favor with Sollux. Landing a spot in Ms. Serket's room never slipped her mind.

Rose scans across the fourth period classroom. The teacher is an attractive female troll with large breasts and numerous piercings. Kanaya had mentioned her relative -dancestor- being in the mathematics department. This must be her.

Several boys feign paying attention, but instead direct their eyes to her bust. Others vary between snoozing, furiously taking notes on the calculus class, and slyly texting friends. The third group is the one that Rose opts to join and she pulls her phone from the pocket of her bag.

There are four texts from Dave, all shitty selfies of him in his classes with ironic captions. He's been doing this every day since freshman year, mostly in an attempt to prove he's not cutting class. The occasionally amusing comment makes the pictures worthwhile. This period's photo features the locker room and gratuitous Strider leg. The PE uniforms haven't gotten more conservative. In fact, they may be more revealing than last year.

All of the other messages are her mom drunk texting through the first class period of the day. She deletes the texts. Dave was in that class and her infatuation with one of his bros could not lead to pleasant comparisons. As much as Dave idolized his oldest bro, it came nowhere near Roxy's worship of the middle Strider brother. It might even put him out a little.

There are five minutes to the bell and Kanaya's dancestor begins handing out homework. Hopefully Jade won't be too busy getting fawned over tonight. A class period of not paying attention won't make the assignment any easier. As much as she supports the relationship, it can make academic assistance difficult.


	6. Chapter 6

Miss Maryam returns to get desk and makes no more statements until the bell rings. It's a simple "have a go+o+d lunch." Some students wave on their way out. She rifles through papers and nods politely to them.

Rose is the last to leave the room and goes through the open hall and out the second floor doors. On the balcony, a clear view of the courtyard can be seen. The foliage of the trees only blocks views from below. At the opposite end, there's a table where she, John, Dave, and Jade have eaten almost every day since their freshman year. The benches on either side comfortably seat the people each and the side of a large planter offers seating for two more.

When she reaches them, all spaces on the benches were claimed except for the one John had saved for her. He moves his bag and she slides between him and Kanaya. Another troll sits on the other bench by Jade. He's got messy hair, nubby candy corn horns and a disgruntled appearance that looks as though it's permanently etched onto his facial features. Jade's step-brother, Jake, is running late with delivering lunch. The twenty-something English always had something going on.

"hi rose!" John happily greets her. "the frowny guy across from kanaya is karkat. we all had last period together so he's sticking with us." The troll face doesn't move and the proper version of one of her mother's often bastardized phrases comes into her head.

"Karkat, did you know that if you keep making faces it'll get stuck like that? It's common knowledge to us but maybe you haven't looked in a mirror lately." Jade giggles art the comment and John struggles to hold himself on the bench as he gives in to an an outburst of laughter. Dave abstains from his friends' mirth and hides his face behind his hands.

Behind her, someone laughs heartily. "Gee rose youve gotten off early with the snark sass and sarcasm on this gentleman." Jake winks down at her and drops takeout boxes in front of everyone, including Karkat and Kanaya. "I must apologize for my tardiness the troop leaders meeting went over and then there was a vicious line. Who are these fine friends you've collected?" he asks while eyeing Kanaya. Rose pulls his arm none too gently so that he is turned toward the sitting space on the planter.

Everyone opens the boxes to reveal gyro sandwiches, the tradition with lunch from Jake. He'd always called them the lazy way to get a taste of adventure. Karkat makes the mistake of nibbling the sandwich's wrapping instead of unwrapping the wrap and spits shreds of foil. In his second attempt, he selects utensils and begins stabbing at the offending wrapper. The sandwich is turned into a pile of tomato, lamb, onions, avocado, olives, and pita bread with it. Taking a spoon, he proudly begins to scoop the abused sandwich into his mouth.  
His success is ruined when he chokes on an olive pit. Jade thumps his back to dislodge the particle while he trashes under her palms. The laughter picks up again when the pit flies out of Karkat's mouth at a flat angle and hits Dave.

Kanaya has significantly better luck with her wrap. She pulls the foil back and directly bites it. The humans all eat the normal way, except for John and Jake. They choose to sympathize with Karkat and shred the wraps into salads.  
Between bites, Rose finds the proper moment to ask the two trolls her question. "Are either of you familiar with a guy named Sollux? He's got four horns and-"

"WHAT DOES SOLLUX MEAN TO YOU." Karkat speaks for the first time and his shouting projects food into Rose's face. He's got a lot of power even though he's probably shorter than everyone sitting down. The guy's got a good pair of lungs on him.

Kanaya picks up a napkin and offers it for Rose to clean her face. She accepts it and wipes his food residue out of her eyes. "We have a class with Ms. Serket and he offered to help her with breaking some encryptions on personal files. He shot down my offer to assist straight away."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HE DIDN'T ASK ME. EVERYONE KNOWS I'M THE BETTER HACKER IF THEY'VE GOT A WORKING THINK PAN. IF I WEREN'T IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS ENGAGEMENT IS GO UP THERE AND-" Less food sprays this time. It's more of a small projection.

"hacking? roses mom is really good at computers she could probably help when she's not drunk," Jade offers helpfully.

Karkat's eating pace picks up and he shovels more food in his mouth. "SILENCE, HUMAN. THIS IS A JOB FOR THE BEST YOUR DINGY SCHOOL WILL EVER SEE. WHEN I'M DONE GETTING ARANEA'S FILES FOR HER, YOU WILL ALL SUBMIT TO MY UNDOUBTABLE SUPERIORITY." He finishes the food and takes off for Aranea's room. A certain Captor was in for a significant surprise visit.


	7. Chapter 7

"Sollux, I really would like to thank you for 8eing willing to come in and spend time on this. I have no idea what could 8e 8ehind all of this! Yes I put protection on all of my materials 8efore departures, 8ut none were supposed to stay... Perhaps you will 8e a8le to crack the encryptions. It's all very gr8 that you're doing this, I've gotten very curious. There were few insidious lines of code in there. I guess that's what I get for hiring a second-rate IT guy to do this!"

"SECOND-RATE IT GUY, HUH. THAT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT FOR MISTER BIPOLAR. I'M READY TO GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD SO EVERYONE ELSE CAN GO HOME." Karkat loudly makes an entrance, trailed by his friends from the lunch table. Small psiionic sparks come from behind Sollux's glasses and Rose recognizes them, but he seems overall more relaxed than when she approached him in the hall. Maybe they're just a normal thing that aren't necessarily triggered.

Already seated in Aranea's spinning chair, Sollux whirls around to face his opposition. "KK, why can't you ju2t learn two let me do my work? iit2 very iimportant we get thi2 2olved and ii can't have you blowiing up or otherwii2e damaging the machiine." There's no way Karkat is going to accept Sollux's statement and walk away, he's hot headed and impulsive beyond reason, definitely a flaw from everyone's perspective.

"YOU'RE GOING ABOUT THIS THE ENTIRELY WRONG WAY, YOU KNOW. LOOK AT ALL THIS CODE YOU WROTE!" he gestures at the computer screen. "WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE CRACKING CODES, NOT WRITING A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM. YOU'RE SUCH AN AMATEUR COMPARED TO ME IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY. THIS A NEW LOW, YOU KNOW. WE USED TO BE GOOD COMPETITION AND LOOK HOW LOW YOUR FIRM WASTE DISPOSAL REGION HAS SUNK."

Rose's eyes wide, hoping the mildly suggestive language is just a poor translation of Alternian to English. The words should just be something else, something... normal. "He Means Ass" Kanaya whispers over to her while the boys begin to argue about their methods. "There Was A Vocabulary Course On Anatomy And Equivalents But You Can Guess Who Didnt Attend"

The room quickly loses interest in the argument led my Karkat and breaks to its own conversations. On occasion, phrases are thrown out loudly from one side, or in Karkat's case more loudly than usual. Points such as "not a one day job after all," "make it work 24/7," and "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT" are made multiple times. Kanaya eventually manages to sate Karkat for a brief amount of time, just long enough for him to be removed from the room. Everyone present agrees to never mention "the H word" in front of the guy ever again, for everyone's sake.

Once the room has calmed down, Sollux is able to explain his plan. It's difficult, time consuming, and overall unrealistic, but that never stopped him in the past. He claims to have one run an even more unrealistic program, one that curses people and makes your computer explode, but doesn't recall the exact results or when the event took place. Chalk it up to a mysterious amnesia. Rose notes that it isn't the first instance shown today. It's a stretch, but the lack of knowledge concerning Beforus and Alternia could fit the bill as well.

It's not like she couldn't be jumping to conclusions, though. Sure, the transfer students are aliens. Science fiction is fiction for a reason. It's not likely they brought a malevolent force over with them by mistake. It's less likely to happen than Sollux's artificial intelligence that will be decrypting the files for Aranea day and night. That's the plan Sollux had outlined. That's why he was writing the code. As long as the AI can learn quickly enough after being built by Sollux's flying fingers, the project should be a success, the files recovered, and the truth revealed.

"the lunch periiod ii2 endiing 2oon. ii2 there any chance ii could get a pa22 out of my next cla22 two 2tay here? iif ii keep at iit we could have 2omethiing by the end of the day." Aranea immediately grabs a notepad and begins to write out notes, three of them. Missing classes on the first day of school, what am awful idea.

How this is flying, Rose isn't quite sure. Their culture probably doesn't have the same emphasis on attendance, she figures. "Which courses do you have? I'll get Ms. Peixes to run these to your teachers. Getting you out of class on my whim... I never expected you to 8e so helpful so that's why it's happening." She finishes the body of the slips and now just needs to write the names of his teachers at the top.

"englii2h with r lalonde, pe wiith l pyrope, and 2ome dumba22 fcs cour2e. ii think iit wa2 wiith j crocker? iive got to a2k for my 2chedule two be changed. iim not 2iittiing through culiinary art2. no way, no how. the wor2t part ii2 ii siigned up for band, but iim in that 2hit in2tead. can't a guy play hii2 2axophone wiithout beiing put iin the wrong fuckiing cla22?" His rant is cut off by the bell, a signal for Sollux to quit yammering and go back to work. Meenah waltzes in, returning from her disappearance, and slips into where she sat during Rose's and Sollux's class. Three papers, the notes for Sollux, are waved toward her and she grudgingly sets off to deliver them.

Everyone without a class in Aranea's that period fights the waves of students to leave. Rose needs to go from this building to the gym. God those PE uniforms are awful. "Do any of you have PE with me?" she asks hopefully. Everyone shakes their head. These new coaches had better be as hella rad as Dave said they were in his text.


End file.
